Iranian Revolution
- Date
- January–February 1979
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Middle East (Iran)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
After more than a year of mounting strikes and mass protests against the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Iranian monarchy collapsed in early 1979.
The Shah left Iran for exile on 16 January 1979; the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran on 1 February to enormous crowds, and the monarchy fell on 11 February as armed insurgents and defecting troops overwhelmed loyalist forces. A referendum in March established the Islamic Republic of Iran, and a new theocratic constitution made Khomeini supreme leader by December 1979. The revolution removed a key Western ally in the Middle East, triggered the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy, and reoriented regional politics around Islamist governance. Its anti-Western and anti-Soviet posture complicated Cold War alignments and helped destabilise the wider region for decades.
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Empires active in January–February 1979
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Yugoslavia1918 CE – 1992 CE
Related politics & governance events
- 1953 Iranian coup d'état (Operation Ajax)19 August 1953
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall9 November 1989
- Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe1989 (Autumn of Nations)
- German reunification3 October 1990
- Dissolution of the Soviet UnionAugust–December 1991
Also relevant
Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Modern Middle East
The go-to survey of the region from the late Ottoman era to the present.
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